Musicians Collaborate from Afar on the WebImagine if John had never met Paul. Well, these days Web sites are making it easier for would-be Lennons and McCartneys to collaborate without ever meeting each other in person.

Users of Jamglue's Web site can mix songs posted by other artists.
Jamglue
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Jamglue

Imagine if John had never met Paul, or another Paul had never met Art. Well, these days online-jamming Web sites are making it easier for thousands or even millions of would-be Lennons and McCartneys or Simons and Garfunkels to collaborate — without ever meeting each other in person.

On one such site, Jamglue.com, "Peace & Hate," a song by a group called The Submarines, is being modified by other users. Anyone who fancies themselves a musician can go in, press a "remix" button, and add their own tracks or make their own version out of the same parts.

Jamglue is one of half a dozen new sites where musicians can meet and compose and play together.

"We've already seen the stage where people are consuming music over the Internet in a whole new way," says Wired News writer Eliot Van Buskirk. "What we haven't seen very much of is people creating music in a new way using the Internet and that's what this is all about."

"You can literally plug a guitar into your computer and start playing with somebody in another city in real time," he says. "Or in a more serious studio session, where you each lay down tracks individually and create a finished product."

A site called eJamming lets you play live with other people.

"As the next generation of musicians comes up with these sites where they can collaborate with each other, hopefully more Johns will meet more Pauls," Van Buskirk says. "I think there's a lot of potential for these sites to become sort of a next-generation record label."